Amplifier/speaker/signal booster information

Hi Guys,
I have been sluicing for a long time and I am over it now. Back is sore after a long day digging.
I trialled an SDC 2300 and it had an unstable balance underwater - is this a common experience for minelabs first foldable underwater gold machine? I had hired this machine and specifically want to buy a machine that will pick up the small stuff. What do you recommend, could I have made some rooky errors?
Don't want a 7000, don' t want to spend that much. A bloke I know well keeps recommending the Sd 2100 with a booster or the 4000 as the best allrounder for small stuff. I would like a small stuff machine with the ability to also find the big stuff or is that an unreasonable request - sincere question?
I am keen to have someone take me to a gold field with a machine and signal booster and show me the evidence on actual small stuff and how to set and operate it properly. I would then buy the machine and a booster on the spot when convinced. I have been told so many conflicting things by salespeople who shall remain nameless that I am actually now confused/ frustrated. Frustratingly I heard contra information that the garret atx was also a good machine for this purpose? An underwater feature is what I want as well.
Just want the best machine for the purpose.
Nearest capital city to me is Canberra.
Cheers - Sluice

You probably hit a honey hole with the SDC and all the small gold was sending it into a feeding frenzy.

Once I worked out that several auto tuning resets can settle the machine down, basalt hot rocks and really bad EMI are the only experiences I have with SDC instability issues. I have had it running in stream twice for short periods of time and haven't noted a difference in background noise. Not sure how accumulations of black sands affect the SDC but would like to hear of others experience in this regard.

The SDC is a proven killer on small shallow gold, the only problem is I still need to spend considerable time to find it.

I have seen a 4500 with a sadie coil in action by an experienced detectorist and it can pick up the small stuff (sub-gram) but still carries a lot of EMI noise compared to the SDC.

This is good feedback Wally69 I appreciate it. I heard from someone else that there may have been some grit in the coil casing that was causing the instability while the machine was in the water.

Would you go for the 4500 with the sadie coil or the SDC?

mbasko said:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/310576671538?nav=SEARCH
Good strong curly lead for the LH-380.
Tested the one from China briefly today & it worked well. No different to the $45 one. Will be good to have as a spare or a tester/loaner for people to try it.
Wish I'd found the $16.99 one a few hundred dollars ago :lol:

Click to expand...

Got mine yesterday , best $17 I have spent works like a dream with the SDC , thanks for advice

Cheers

Sluice said:

This is good feedback Wally69 I appreciate it. I heard from someone else that there may have been some grit in the coil casing that was causing the instability while the machine was in the water.

Would you go for the 4500 with the sadie coil or the SDC?

Click to expand...

I purchased a SDC based on having a better likely hood of finding a nugget due to the technology and the compact nature of the machine. I think you will find more nuggets with a SDC but may struggle to pick up bigger nuggets at depth compared with the 4500. I may be biased as I havnt managed to crack the gram barrier yet and a big one at 10" may confirm I just havn't walked over one, maybe because I spend too much time digging lead shot and don't cover enough ground.

The 4500 gives opportunity for a different style of detecting in my opinion. I have observed GPX operators with big coils strapped on cover 10 times as much ground as the SDC swingers, they often come home with less nuggets (sometimes none) but the total weight usually outguns the SDC operators.

An astute GPX operator can put the sadie cleaning-wand on when he finds a run of gold and I have heard that this has been a successful combination in days gone past. I know some of those patches have been re-hit with the SDC with varied success and some with no success. I am more inclined to think the difference in success is operator skill, the better the GPX operator, the fewer crumbs.

I would not swap my SDC for a GPX as I like what it does and am happy to get a couple of nuggets when I got out. I could make a conscious decision to ignore the feignt signals and cover more ground but I don't. I do go home every time longing for that big slug of a nugget I can throw up in the air and feel the hearty impact as it hits the hand ( gold fever ) it makes me consider upgrading to the GPZ-7000 as it appears to cover both styles of detecting better with the one coil.....it is slowly sucking me in.

Bottom line, if I was to spend my $4k again I would probably go for a GPX and complain I didn't get a SDC.

Bacchus said:

mbasko said:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/310576671538?nav=SEARCH
Good strong curly lead for the LH-380.
Tested the one from China briefly today & it worked well. No different to the $45 one. Will be good to have as a spare or a tester/loaner for people to try it.
Wish I'd found the $16.99 one a few hundred dollars ago :lol:

Click to expand...

Got mine yesterday , best $17 I have spent works like a dream with the SDC , thanks for advice

Cheers

Click to expand...

No worries. Hopefully it'll help with a few nugget finds.

Thinking getting a LH-380amp as well. What lead will I need to get to run one of these on the gpx 4500?

If you have a 4500, just use the inbuilt amp. Clean, no distortion and gives you more of a true target signal boost, while only slightly increasing the threshold.

Nenad

What lead will I need to run from battery to the lh-380?

Any guitar lead with 6.35mm plugs should do the trick. I got one of these but they are currently out of stock:
https://www.swamp.net.au/curly-guitar-lead.html
They are a nice, heavy lead & being curly give you some "flex" which is needed for the SDC. Being for a GPX4500 it wouldn't matter so much & you could use a straight lead something like:
https://www.swamp.net.au/swamp-right-angled-guitar-lead.html
You will just need to make sure that you get one long enough to suit where you want to position the amp & down comfortably to your battery to allow for movement etc.

Thanks mbasko, I think I'll get one to try out. Cheapest I could find the lh-380 for on eBay is $26 at the moment. The speaker I got with the 45 is a little bit dodgy so I may as well. I used the headphones yesterday however I found them pretty annoying.

Cheeky buggers put the price up :lol:
$19.99 or best offer here:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/131112537426

Haha thanks mate. I much prefer the black as well.

Just ordered the lh-380 along with a 25cm lead for mounting to control box cover and also a 1.5m lead if I want to have it on the harness somewhere. I didn't trust the dodgy speaker I got with the 45 and just used the headphones for my first outing.

Well done mate amazing how small these girls pick up .As for the large one we may haft to start calling you hawk eye!! I call mine the mop ! It cleans up all the stuff people leave behind.

G'day all, I just picked up a second hand b&z booster for my 5k. I was hoping somebody could help me out with the correct settings on the 5k, in conjunction with using this booster.

I also picked up a new Coiltek 14" mono elite. When I had my gp3500 the Coiltek 14" mono was my favourite coil, loved it.

Real keen to see how this new coil performs, and just for a bit of fun I'm going to do some depth tests with it on a few different size nuggs against my NF 16" mono. Not a fair test but I would to know the differences, and how they compare.

The lh-380 guitar amplifier arrived today. I haven't had a chance to test it on gold as the detector goes mental at home. I did turn it on to have a play with the settings though. It has 2 levels of amplification as well as tone control and volume control. Just on standard volume it is much louder than any of the purpose built speakers and the speaker is much clearer at volume. When you flick it to the drive setting (highest amplification) it is offensively loud. I'm sure my neighbours in every direction heard it from inside my living room (not exaggerating).
It is much better than the speaker I got with my detector. I've been using headphones however I think this will be my go to now. Considering it is an amplifier and speaker in one unit it makes life easy. This testing was with all the audio settings on the 4500 in FP.
For $17 plus $3 for a lead I am very impressed.
Here's a pic to give you an idea of the size of it, it also has a clip on the back to stick it on ya belt or harness.

Ah 5 k has a inbuilt booster mate wasting your time just look for gold heh .

Joeboy said:

G'day all, I just picked up a second hand b&z booster for my 5k. I was hoping somebody could help me out with the correct settings on the 5k, in conjunction with using this booster.

I also picked up a new Coiltek 14" mono elite. When I had my gp3500 the Coiltek 14" mono was my favourite coil, loved it.

Real keen to see how this new coil performs, and just for a bit of fun I'm going to do some depth tests with it on a few different size nuggs against my NF 16" mono. Not a fair test but I would to know the differences, and how they compare.

Click to expand...

There is an inbuilt amp in the 5000 battery but it won't trip in unless you're using a specially wired external speaker (or headphones if you re-wire them). External speakers sold by reputable dealers will already be wired correctly to trip the battery amp. Speakers from Jaycar etc. won't trip it unless you re-wire or you have them re-wired to suit. The wiring is described in the 4800/5000 manual.
This is to prevent it tripping in with headphones that have been wired normally & protecting against inadvertent hearing damage.
Most people agree that the inbuilt amp isn't as good as the aftermarket products such as the B&Z. There are no special settings & it would be up to what the individual finds best for them in various circumstances. One thing I have read though from JP is to keep the B&Z volume above 2.

Haha Hawkeye. Hopefully I can hone in on some bigger nugs.
As for the boosters, I don't have direct experience with the b&z booster however I have just recently got a mini guitar amplifier.
I found that on the highest level of amplification that my test target was not as crisp and harder to identify. I run in standard amplification and its much louder than any of the standard speakers for the 4500. I found the standard speaker and headphones to be a little too quiet for my liking. After going out recently with my amplifier I was very confident in picking up those wispers. I think the extra volume helps with that. The proof is in the pudding. Got 3 pieces all under .2 I'm guessing in a heavily detected area. I'm sure I would have heard these with the headphones however I could see how they could be misses also. There was no missing them with all audio settings in gpx except for signal volume up at almost max. The threshold wasn't too loud however when you had a signal it was very noticeable. Was only a wisoer with headphones on same settings. Hope this helps a bit